Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 70:277 (Jan 1913)
Article: Thought and Language
Author: Theodore W. Hunt

BSac 70:277 (Jan 1913) p. 95

Thought and Language

Theodore W. Hunt, Ph.D.

This is a subject of vital interest to every student of language and of the human mind, so that it is incumbent upon every intelligent seeker after truth to reach his own conclusions in his own way without slavish deference to the opinions of others. Special interest in it has been awakened in recent years by the fact that two of the foremost philologists of the English-speaking world, Max Müller and Professor Whitney, have discussed the subject in all its bearings, and have gathered about them, in this country and Europe, able exponents of their respective theories. In Whitney’s valuable volume “Language and the Study of Language “and in Müller’s suggestive treatise “The Science of Thought,” these contrasted theories are forcibly stated and defended, and the way is fully opened for the independent investigations of the student of philology and psychology.

Two opposing theories may thus be said to possess the field of inquiry.

Theory of Identity.

The first is that of Identity, maintaining that Thought and Language are practically one in province and function. On the basis of this position it is held, that the number of ideas and words is the same, that all thought is expressible in words, and that there is no such thing as thinking without

BSac 70:277 (Jan 1913) p. 96

the use of words as a medium. Müller , in his “Science of Thought,” seems to maintain this view. In the preface, he speaks of the “inseparableness “of language from thought, of “the identity of reason and language.” He insists that logos, in Greek, refers to “the undivided essence of language and thought,” and adds: “The best study of the real laws of thought will be hereafter the study of the real laws of language.” One of the introductory chapters is entitled “The Identity of Language and Thought.” This is, indeed, the theme and content of the book; while he takes special pleasure in quoting, in confirmation of his view, such notable names as Abelard, Hobbes, Leibnitz, William von Humboldt, Schelling, Hegel, Whately, and others.

Two or three objections to this theory may be noticed.

1. That it places the mind upon a level with the instrument that it uses, thus confounding the medium with that of which it is the medium — means with ends — so unnecessarily lowering thought and elevating language; while the strict use of the word “identical “in this connection would properly exclude any such idea as that of relationship.

2. Moreover, it may be stated, that, a priori, thought is greater in province and function than speech, that there are more mental notions than there are t...